olympicsfandomcom-20200213-history
Speed Skating 2018/Men's 5000 metre
Format The competition exists out of eleven head-to-head races of 5000 metres. The competitor with the fastest time is the winner. Preview Twenty-two athletes qualified for the event, and the absolute favorite was Sven Kramer, after winning this event twice in a row, although his biggest rival would be Ted-Jan Bloemen, who broke the world record only one year earlier. Although Kramer won almost every 5000 metres race he appeared in, he was just defeated by Bob de Vries during the national trials. Jan Blokhuijsen, who won silver four years before, and Lee Seung-hoon, who won the silver medal in 2010, were also competing. Other medal contenders included Patrick Beckert and Sverre Lunde Pedersen. Bob de Vries was the oldest athlete to participate, making his Olympic debut at the 5000 metres, while Emery Lehman was the youngest competitor, despite already appearing at Sochi 2014. Six athletes participated at least twice before, with Olympic medalists Sven Kramer and Havard Bokko competing since Torino 2006. Out of the reigning Olympic medalists, Jorrit Bergsma only competed in other distances, with Kramer and Jan Blokhuijsen attempting to defend their Olympic medals. Current Records Summary With eleven pairings in the competition, the first skater to set a good time was Seitaro Ichinohe, after Adrian Wielgat, Nils van der Poel, Ryosuke Tsuchiya, Emery Lehman, and Livio Wenger failed to impress. In pairing four, the first outsider would start, with Bob de Vries racing against Simen Spieler Nilsen. De Vries was able to beat favorite Sven Kramer in the Dutch national trials, and if he were to do it again, he would be able to win an Olympic medal. However, he had a slow start and couldn't recover from it, finishing behind Van der Poel from the first pairing. The last pairing before the break would see home favorite Lee Seung-hoon and Bart Swings, who both set a good time, over two seconds in front of Ichinohe, with Lee taking the lead. The two pairings after the break saw no one beating the times of Lee and Swings, with Havard Bokko, Davide Ghiotto, and Andrea Giovannini finishing 15 seconds behind Lee, and Alexis Contin 4 seconds behind. With the medal contenders starting from pairing eight onwards, Peter Michael was the first speed skater to beat Lee's time, with Jan Blokhuijsen just finishing behind Swings. The ninth pairing included world record holder Ted-Jan Bloemen and outsider Sverre Lunde Pedersen, and they were able to take advantage of each other, finishing only 0.002 seconds apart, with Bloemen having the edge of the two. The penultimate race, with defending champion Sven Kramer against yet another outsider Patrick Beckert. With Kramer finishing in a new Olympic record, ensuring himself of a medal, his opponent was less fortunate, setting on ninth place. The last race with Nicola Tumolero and Moritz Geisreiter quickly looked like no threat to the medal contenders, eventually finishing eighth and twelfth. Results Speed Skating 2018/Men's 5000 metre/StartList|Startlist Speed Skating 2018/Men's 5000 metre/Standings|Standings||true Category:Pyeongchang 2018 Events Category:Speed Skating 2018